From: George Carmichael <george>
Date: Wed,  5 Jul 95 08:43:55 -0600

Subject: Re: GEO-Counter & logic of code


How to use counter is at http://www.ualberta.ca/GEO/Counter.html


  As for the source code, it's still too kludgy to be released.

   Here are a few tips, though.

     "High Use" should probably still be written in C.
      (I think part of my server problem is having a fast machine
       NOT keep up with re-interpreting the Perl code every time
       someone asks for a "hit")

    Consider using other people's libraries, such as libwww
	and PerlLib for general http/web stuff, and Imagick
	 for graphic routines.


     If you're *really* new to perl, take a look at my mailer example
     code at http://www.ualberta.ca/GEO/Mailer.html


      Anyway, here's the basic logic of this trivial program.

         Get an argument into the code (you can use Mailer as
           an example on how to do this)

         Identify the main argument and locate the appropriate
            file that matches this counter

         Add one.

         Do other house keeping (like finding out from the
            environment variables who visited, etc) and
            save the results in appropriate files

         Convert the number to either an XBM or GIF.  (Consider
            using the "montage" program from the ImageMagick 
             routines http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html)

         Write out a MIME header that says "I'm sending a graphic"
            ie ("Content-type: image/gif ")

         Write out the converted gif/xbm number.

  This started as a very trivial program.  The hassles came in later
 (managing the files, blacklisting some sites, error checking, etc)


  George




Begin forwarded message:


Date: Wed, 05 Jul 95 11:16:59 -0700


X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit)
To: George.Carmichael@UAlberta.CA
Subject: GEO-Counter

We like your GEO-COUNTER - can you let us know how to do it - 
we would like details of the number of accesses and the recent 
users - our 'techies' keep giving us the impression that it is very 
difficult and never get around to doing it for us.
Some information about how to do it (listings would be even better!) 
will give us a bit of ammunition to tackle our 'techies'

Thanks